Food, Glorious Food

 So, it is no secret that I like to eat, and that if there is an excuse, I love to make me a fancy dessert.  This week, I had a few excuses. First, it was YW in Excellence, a special evening that only happens once a year to celebrate the accomplishments of the teenage girls in our church.  We have a special program called Personal Progress that the girls participate in, where they fulfill goals that help them grow not only spiritually, but prepare them to be well-rounded adults.

So the theme for this year was John 15:8: "Herein is my Father glorified , that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. " So we really made "fruit" the theme of the night. I dusted off my writing skills and wrote a skit that the adult leaders performed entitled "By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them." It is funny to me that I was so creative as a teenager and as a young adult, but in many ways my creativity has been re-channeled as I have dealt with the day-to-day tasks of parenting. I felt excited to have a truly unique idea, and to be able to see it come to fruition. If you want to read it, you can email me:)

Besides the skit, we decided for decorations to just have beautiful fruit desserts to celebrate the girls' "fruits" of their labors.  I love trifles, so I volunteered for that.  For some reason, I still don't own a trifle dish, so I had to borrow two from the YW president, Ana. We made two of each dessert, with long tables along the side of the room with the desserts displayed in mirror image of each other.  It was quite pretty. I should have taken pictures.  So, what did I put in my trifle? Pound cake, lemon curd from scratch (I forgot how labor-intensive that was...but it was worth it for the glorious outcome), whipped cream and cream cheese with sugar and vanilla, and raspberries and strawberries.  It really was magnificent.

 Then, I made pumpkin bread pudding with a caramel sauce.  This dessert I discovered a few years ago on epicurious.com, and it is so good, I really think I might make it in place of pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. I'm not a big fan of pie crusts.  I made this for my fellow foodie, Heather.  After we ate it, she and I poured over restaurant magazines online, deciding where we need to eat together before I move. Yes, this is what matters most about San Antonio; the restaurants to eat at.

My children all wanted to help, of course. I put them in charge of ripping the french bread. Don't worry, Dottie didn't really put her mouth on the bread.

And in school news, Dottie has just completed her 4th poem, "I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud," an abridged version. She memorizes very quickly; she must have gotten that skill from Joe. When we performed the skit for YW, I didn't have my lines down, and I even wrote the thing! I don't know why I'm having problems, but the second one is the one that works. I can't delete the first one.

So have I mentioned I've started taking voice lessons? Yes! I'm so excited. One song that I'm working on that I'm singing in a week for a church talent show is "What Is This Feeling?" from Wicked. Because of my memorization problems, it's been on repeat, often.  Ruby has adopted some mighty fine dance moves to this song. I don't know why it won't play the music?? Sorry.